ABSTRACT
As monetary networks, LCSs are distinctive from the formal, state-regulated mainstream monetary system along all five of the abstract properties identified by Dodd (Table 6.1):
Table 6.1 Monetary networks and Local Currency Systems (LCSs)
• The system of accountancy revolves around a special, local credit money operating quite independently of the ‘legal tender’ of the mainstream economy.3 Such local money serves as a measure of value and a medium of exchange, but it does not function very well as a store of value. No interest can be earned on credit accumulated, and the system is an accumulation of credits with no external value other than when they are activated through expenditure; that is, money in LCSs has to be in action to be worth anything.
